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The 41-year-old man once worked as a business consultant in Bologna, Italy, where he pocketed over $100,000 a year and drove a Porsche. Now, he earns about $15 an hour as a busker outside Toronto’s subways and storefronts.

“I asked myself, ‘What am I doing? I am not happy,’ ” he recalled. “I had money, I had cars, I had beautiful clothes. But what is the point?”

Piretti had long desired a high-paying job, but felt his life lacked purpose. There was one question that plagued him: “What are you doing here?”

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He sunk so low he contemplated suicide at one point. But when he thought about it, he decided he had three reasons to live.

“The love of a good woman, sports and music,” he said, smiling. Since he had a Canadian girlfriend, liked baseball and had recently taken up the guitar, he quit his job and moved to Toronto in 2009.

Piretti, who goes by the nickname “Toz,” had a few fruitless meetings with record producers and struggled to find frequent gigs in the city. Simply wanting to share his music with others, he applied for a busker’s licence.

In a typical week, he plays two or three days for about six hours a day. On Wednesday afternoon, he crooned a few original numbers and covers of R.E.M. and U2 outside the Eaton Centre. Passing shoppers stopped occasionally to listen and drop change into his case.

It’s exhausting work — and lonely, too.

“When you play, you are completely alone,” he said. “Many wink and smile at you, many stop and say, ‘Oh, you are good, thank you,’ but you are alone.”

He decided to reach out to his audience by leaving an open notebook in his case. Inside its pages are countless handwritten notes and email addresses.

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One passerby wrote, “Thank you for accompanying me tonight, on different levels. Perhaps a moment that changed my life. Keep doing what you love to do.”

Piretti admits he can’t busk forever. His fingertips are deeply grooved and blistered, and he works as a server to supplement his income.

Like most buskers, he hopes to make it big as a musician — but not so he can buy more expensive cars and flashy clothes.

Piretti writes songs about social issues he hopes to change, including one called, “My Name Is Not Important,” about child poverty in Africa. He has self-recorded five CDs that he sells from his guitar case.

It hasn’t been easy, but said he would never return to his former life.

“I have a song called, ‘Thanks To You,’ that I have written to all of the people of Toronto. I have lived a dream for two years. This is a dream.”

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